About 20 minutes west from Oxford is the tiny village of Swinbrook, nestled among the western Cotswolds hills. From Swinbrook there are dozens of "Footpaths" that lead through the fields and woods of the Windrush Valley, inviting everyone to take a country walk.
One of the many things I love about living in the U.K. is that there is public access to walk just about anywhere. Today we followed a "Footpath" trail through some fields and then along the Windrush river.
While we were definitely in farm country, the farm houses looked more like where the gentry would live. Some of the homes where stunning!
So were the farms.
Walking is very much a part of life here. There is still an attitude that there is no need to take the car if you can get there by walking, bike, or bus.
Besides, one can see so much more by walking than by car ...
...like all kinds of farm animals
...and baby lambs that are just a few hours old
Geese
Birds (Pied Wagtail)
And of course, pubs! This is the Swan Inn in Swinbrook. It is owned by Dame Deborah Vivien Cavendish, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire and the last sister of the Mitford Sisters.
Although they are not that well known in America, if you ask an English person of a certain age about the Mitford Sisters, he or she will know exactly who you are talking about. The Mitford sisters were six beautiful and talented aristocratic young women who were raised near Swinbrook and who came of age in the interwar period (imagine Downton Abbey time period). These women lived, for the most part, amazing (though not admirable in all cases) lives:
Nancy, the oldest, became a best selling novelist; Pamela lived a country life after marriage; Diana, the society beauty, who left her husband for the fascist Oswald Mosley and who befriended Hitler; Unity, who became obsessed with Hitler and met him 140 times during a short period before WWII; Jessica, the rebel, who eloped at 18, became a communist, moved to the U.S. and became a best selling author on such topics as the funeral home industry; and Deborah, the youngest, who made the most brilliant marriage, to the future Duke of Devonshire. Debo was the last remaining sister and her estate owns the Swan Inn in Swinbrook. She died on September 24, 1914 and is buried at her beautiful family estate Chatsworth House in Derbyshire.
Click here for her obituary:
Four of the six sisters are buried in the Swinbrook's St. Mary's Church graveyard.
Inside the church are unusual monuments to the Fettiplace family – six effigies in two triple tiers ‘like passengers on an old-fashioned steamer’. There is also a plaque to Tom Mitford, the only son who was killed in WWII.
On the way home we delighted in the "fields of gold" -- Rapeseed fields in full bloom.
For more information about the Mitford sisters:
It looks amazing. My grandfathers estate and manor is near you, Ardley Bury (I think that is the correct spelling of Ardley). I have never had a chance to go. Apparently in the village my great great grandfathers initials are on the lintels of all the houses. Granddad was the black sheep of the family and was shipped off to New Zealand. Xx
ReplyDeleteSally, Come and visit us while we are here. We can track down your great grandfather's land and look for his initials!
ReplyDelete